There is something really special about talking to someone who is still in the middle of becoming.
And honestly, the conversation around Kartanya Maynard and plus size representation feels bigger than one actress landing a breakout role.
It feels like watching somebody actively reshape what visibility can look like for plus size women onscreen while also figuring it out in real time herself.
That was exactly what it felt like sitting down with Heartbreak High star Kartanya Maynard.
Not somebody pretending they have life completely figured out. I mean someone who is willing to say, “Yeah, this scares me,” while still walking directly toward the thing anyway.
And by the end of our conversation, I just kept thinking about how many plus size women are going to see themselves in her story.
Because Kartanya is not speaking from some distant, untouchable place, the conversation feels incredibly real. There is still active unlearning happening in real time.
Confidence is still being figured out. Self-doubt still shows up in the room sometimes. And yet, while navigating all of that, Kartanya Maynard is becoming one of the most exciting young actresses coming out of Australia right now.
Which honestly makes her even more relatable.
She Was Not Supposed to Be Here and That Is What Makes the Story So Good
One of the first things that surprised me while researching Kartanya was finding out acting was not even the original plan.
Music was.
She talked about studying music before experiencing burnout and developing tinnitus from years around loud sound.
And if you have ever pushed yourself so hard toward one dream that your body finally taps you on the shoulder and says, “Girl, enough,” then you probably understand that kind of turning point.
But instead of seeing it as failure, Kartanya allowed herself to pivot.
That pivot eventually led her toward acting, even though she admitted she almost let fear talk her out of it.
And whew, let us pause there for a second because how many opportunities have we almost missed because we convinced ourselves we were not ready yet?
How many plus size women have spent years waiting to feel confident enough before trying the thing they actually wanted?
Kartanya said something during our conversation that stayed with me long after we wrapped the interview: “Feel the fear and do it anyway.”
That really feels like the entire spirit of her career right now.
Why Kartanya Maynard’s Plus Size Representation Hits So Deeply
At one point during the interview, Kartanya started talking about growing up without seeing women who looked like her onscreen.
Not just Indigenous women.
Plus size women.
“None of them looked like me. None of them were my size,” she explained.
And honestly, I think that sentence is going to hit a lot of people right in the chest.
Because many plus size women grew up learning visibility had conditions attached to it.
You could be funny.
You could be the supportive friend.
You could maybe get the makeover storyline.
But desirable? Complex? Romantic? The actual lead? That was often reserved for somebody else.
That is not just our feelings, nope. Research from the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media has shown that representation in film and television directly impacts how people view themselves and their possibilities. And when you spend years never seeing yourself reflected back in meaningful ways, it absolutely shapes your confidence.
Kartanya talked openly about internalizing that messaging. She even admitted that when she finally did start seeing plus size women onscreen, she still viewed them as exceptions instead of evidence that there was room for her too.
That part really got me because I think so many women understand that mindset without even realizing it.
You start treating your dreams like they belong to “other people.”
Meanwhile, Kartanya is over here slowly dismantling that idea role by role.
For Kartanya, Representation Is Bigger Than Just Visibility
One thing I really appreciated during our conversation was how intentionally Kartanya spoke about community.
As a proud Trawlwoolway woman, one of the Aboriginal peoples of Tasmania, Kartanya spoke about the responsibility she feels being one of the few Indigenous leads on a global Netflix series.
And while a lot of people might describe that kind of visibility as pressure, Kartanya framed it differently.
She described it as honor.
“I just want to show that I’m there for any young Aboriginal girl that wants to be up on screen and tell them they can do it because they can do it because I did it,” she shared with us.
That part stayed with me because you could hear how personal it was for her.
Earlier in our conversation, she talked about growing up obsessed with movies while rarely seeing women who looked like her onscreen. And now, she is becoming that person for somebody else.
That is not small.
Representation conversations can sometimes get flattened into buzzwords online, but moments like this are a reminder that visibility actually changes what people believe is possible for themselves.
Research from the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative has repeatedly talked about the lack of Indigenous representation across film and television globally.
Which is exactly why actresses like Kartanya Maynard matter so much right now.
And honestly, one of my favorite things about Kartanya Maynard is that she does not speak about success as an individual experience.
She kept coming back to mentorship.
To family.
To the people who believed in her before she fully believed in herself.
That groundedness comes through immediately when you talk to her.
Let Us Talk About the Fashion Because Zoe Clark Was Serving
I had to ask her about the costumes on Heartbreak High because Zoe’s wardrobe deserved its own fan club.
The blazers alone? Incredible.
And when Kartanya Maynard started talking about that green outfit specifically, I immediately understood why she loved it so much. She described putting it on and instantly feeling powerful.
But what made that moment even more interesting was hearing her explain how nervous she initially felt about costuming as a plus size actress.
“What if they can’t find costumes for me?” was one of the fears running through her head before joining the show.
And plus size women know exactly where that fear comes from.
Shopping while plus size can already feel exhausting before you add cameras, fittings and industry beauty standards into the mix.
But instead of making her feel like a problem to solve, the Heartbreak High costume team embraced Kartanya Maynard fully. Some outfits were custom-made specifically for her.
I loved hearing her describe that experience because fashion is supposed to make you feel seen. It is supposed to help you feel more like yourself, not less.
Also, side note, I fully support bringing dramatic blazers back into everyday fashion. I am ready immediately.
Kartanya Wants Plus Size Women to Finally Get the Love Story
This was probably one of my favorite parts of the conversation because you could hear how much this mattered to her personally.
When I asked about dream roles, Kartanya said she would love to do a romantic role someday.
And not in a gimmicky way either.
She wants plus size women to have the kind of onscreen love stories that feel layered, emotional, sexy, awkward, joyful, and human.
“I want to be a part of the change,” she explained.
Honestly? Same.
Because plus size women deserve more than being treated like side characters in stories about desirability.
Research shared through the American Psychological Association: Psychology of Popular Media has found that larger-bodied characters are still underrepresented in romantic narratives across media. And even when plus size women are included, they are often denied the same softness or romantic complexity given to smaller characters.
Meanwhile, real life tells a completely different story.
Plus size women experience love in all the same messy, beautiful, complicated ways everybody else does. We date, flirt, fall hard, get our hearts broken, and try again.
And hearing Kartanya talk about wanting to help normalize that onscreen felt important.
Not because plus size women need permission to be loved.
Because audiences need to stop acting surprised when we are.
“Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway”
By the end of our conversation, I realized Kartanya’s story is not really about becoming fearless.
It is about movement.
She keeps moving anyway.
Even while second-guessing herself and navigating an industry that still has a long way to go with plus size representation, Kartanya continues showing up anyway. That willingness to keep going while still figuring things out is part of what makes her so compelling to watch right now.
You can hear it in the way she talks about finally stepping onto the international stage with HBO and Sky’s upcoming series War.
There is excitement there, but also gratitude. A real understanding of how quickly life can change when you stop letting fear make your decisions for you.
What stayed with me most was the honesty in our conversation. Kartanya never tried to present herself as somebody who has everything figured out already, and that vulnerability made the entire conversation feel grounded.
The kind of real where you can still hear the younger version of herself inside the conversation. The girl who loved movies, wanted to act, did not see anybody who looked like her, and decided to try anyway.
And now she gets to become that representation for somebody else.
That is powerful.
And personally? I think we are only seeing the beginning of what Kartanya Maynard is about to do next.
